hey, everyone this is my long list of suggestion for Golden Sun 4. I have already posted them on a few other parts of this site.
Everyone who reads this (these ideas are great, you WILL be enticed, just read them): Please spread my ideas as far as you can. I ask you you to put them everywhere you can- on blogs, forums, websites etc. to make Camelot more likely to find them (they check forums and sites and whatever related to them routinely). Please Encourage others to spread spread my ideas wherever they can . Whatever happens, Camelot simply must come across my suggestions. Please hear me out, everyone- If Camelot finds these suggestions and puts them in Golden Sun 4, imagine how awesome it would be! if you spread these ideas, just say they are from "Cozza" (me) and that I do not care if Camelot has issues with me over copyright ( like who owns the ideas and if I should be acknowledged if they are put in the game) i don't mind if i'm not acknowledged for them- my acknowledgement would be them being put in the game- that's all i care about.
There are plenty of things in this list, Camelot. I understand it would probably impossible for you to put all of these things in the game. Gameplay suggestions should take first priority. I think you guys at Camelot could probably exclude the idea of inventing psynergy or summon sequences (an idea that I reveal in this list).
-Make Golden Sun 4’s difficulty at least twice as high as the first two Golden Sun’s combined. The monsters in Dark Dawn did not have NEARLY enough moves and whatever moves they did have had CRIMINALLY LOW STRENGTH. The same goes for the bosses in Dark Dawn and they usually only got 1 MOVE PER TURN, even the Mountain Roc was like that, and they talked him up SO much, saying he could ‘make weather’, ‘he is beyond legendary’, they practically said he could pick up several people at once and kill them instantly, and yet he only got 1 MOVE PER TURN and NONE of his moves were ANYWHERE NEAR adequate to defeat the party. The same goes for almost ALL other bosses in Dark Dawn.
My brother has told me that one of the things that made the first 2 Golden Suns so difficult was that when he travelled from town to town, almost his whole party would be defeated by the time he got to the next town-he would have only JUST survived the journey and he would have depleted his healing items an Psynergy Points. Do this in Golden Sun 4. Beef up the difficulty by making healing and psynergy- restoring items VERY, VERY scarce and put only a few of each healing and Psynergy-restoring items in each shop in the towns. Give the random monsters high strength, high agility and good evasion (chance of dodging normal melee attacks) and seriously impairing moves, make it so that they only ocassionaly drop any healing and psynergy-restoring items and drop a lot less money than in the first 3 games. Bring back the spirit of the first 2 Golden Suns by making each trek between towns an arduous, slow, trying task- an absolute TRIAL. Make sure that almost every member of the player’s party is down by the end of each journey between towns and that they are almost all out of Psynergy Points and items! Make the rather unlikely discovery of even a minor item an absolute blessing for the player and the discovery of the next town like the discovery of Heaven and a Holy chance to re-stock on items and heal and rest the party. If you think that is going too far, all I can say is ‘Ridiculous difficulty is better that puny difficulty!’.
-Another thing I must say is that money does not have to be the player’s main source of revenue. I STRONGLY recommend that defeating enemies yields little to no money but earns the occasional item. If you do this, Camelot, the player will have to decide whether to sell a vital healing item in order to have enough money to buy a good, effective new weapon or armour (that could mean the difference between success and failure) or to keep the healing item to simply SURVIVE the next battle by keeping a party member alive by the use of that healing item. This should be optional for the player- the player should be able to go to the options menu and choose between getting normal amounts of money out of winning battles or getting little to no money out of winning battles. Camelot, I VERY STRONGLY recommend that you guys put this in Golden Sun 4 to REALLY increase the difficulty.
-Player can make poisons and antidotes out of wild plants on the world map, arrows, bows, crossbows, crossbow bolts, spears, shields and other wooden equipment out of trees on the world map. The player may also invent new weapons and enchant them with psynergy to give them an unleash ability with an effect the player invents (the game will place certain restrictions on the side-effects of weapons and armour) or chooses (the game will offer its own side-effects for weapons and armour within the rules of fairness and reasonability, so as not to overpower enemies). The player may also learn how place a metal rim or coating on the weapons he/she has made so they will do more damage or provide more defence etc. The player must learn, from a shopkeeper or blacksmith, how to do such things. A weapon shopkeeper will teach how to do the above with weapons, and armour-keeper with armour, and a medicine-seller will teach how to make poisons and antidotes. The player must pay money for lessons on how to do these things and will find that shopkeepers later towns in the game will be able to teach more than shopkeepers in early towns (this will prevent the player from knowing everything to early in the game).
-Many different types of poison, each one reduces the status (e.g. attack, defence, luck, agility etc.) component it is named after by a certain amount per turn: 'Attack poison', 'Defence poison', 'Agility poison', 'Luck poison'. There should also be poisons for ALL INDIVIDUAL elemental powers and elemental resistances (e.g. 'Water Resistance poison' and 'Water Power poison'). The player can make these poisons out of specific plants and then enchant them with psynergy in different ways depending on which specific type of poison he/she wants. There are specific types of plants and other ingredients for each poison and not all of them can be enchanted to reduce an elemental status. There are specific antidotes for each poison (some with multiple ingredients) and the player can also invent new antidotes that cure multiple types of poison and make poisons that effect more than one status component (2 to begin with, then more as the player progresses through the game).
-The player should choose what a blacksmith makes out of a raw material and can receive lessons on how to forge things and make things and poisons out in the wild. The player can invent things that blacksmiths don't make. The player can also give his/her invention an effect/unleash.
-'Combination Psynergies'
-At some stage of the game (perhaps as a reward for completing the game or all the secrets/sidequests in the game, or the effect of a secret item in an extremely well-hidden secret dungeon in the game) the player should be able to combine ALL psynergies, (including 'HP-restoring and 'Status-Healing' ones) (e.g. Whirlwind + Flare= 'Whirling Flare' or 'Pure Wish + 'Cool Aura'='Pure Aura').The limit for the number of psynergies that can be combined in battle should be the number of party members there are in the front line of battle. The player may use the touch-screen to invent a 3-dimensional animation sequence for each 'Combination Psynergy' and create his/her own name for 'Combined Psynergies'.
-There should also be MANY new psynergies, even for the usual four elements. Here are my suggestions. I shall be heartbroken if they are not in the game. So, in other words, you must put include them in the game:
EARTH: Have the usual “Quake” psynergy series but extend it beyond “Quake Sphere”; after ‘Quake Sphere, have; “Tectonic Shift”, then “Tectonic Disturbance”, then “Tectonic Scrape”
"Battle Formations/Actions"
There shall be 'Battle Formations' in Golden Sun 4 and, just like any Golden Sun fan , I will not take ‘No’ for an answer:
‘Shield Prepared’: Player commands 1+ party members to place their shields out in front of themselves for protection.
‘Shield Block’: Just before one of the player’s party members is attacked by an enemy’s normal, weapon-based melee attack, the player may press, for example, the R-Button on the 3DS system to quickly ‘Shield Block’ the attack even without using the ‘Shield Prepared’ action.
‘Shield Wall’: Player commands any number of party members to place their shields in front of themselves to protect from enemy attacks. This is more effective than just getting everyone to perform ‘Shield Prepared’ since it gets everyone to work as a team and literally fill in gaps in the party’s defense to protect from ranged attacks especially.
‘Shield Bash’: The player commands an individual party member to bash an individual enemy with a shield (if a shield is equipped on that party member). This can also be done to more than one enemy and does little damage to them, but may reduce their ‘Morale’ a bit.
‘Weapon Prepared’: 1+ characters place their weapons out in front of themselves to be prepared to ‘Retaliate’ if an enemy comes up close to do a melee attack (an attack with their weapon). The player is given some short warning by the game immediately before the enemy carries out the melee attack. The player then may press the ‘Parry’ button on the system (if he/she reacts fast enough), or choose to‘Retaliate’. The player may also Parry, then immediately Retaliate if he/she is skilled enough to do so.
‘Weapon Parry’: Just before one of the player’s party members is attacked by an enemy’s normal, weapon-based melee attack, the player may press the Y-Button (for example) to ‘Parry’ the attack with that party member’s weapon. This is not as effective as ‘Shield Block’ since the enemy can get around the weapon and have a second chance to hit the defender, in which case the player must keep pressing the Y-Button (‘Parry’ button) to ‘Parry’ each attack in order to avoid damage.
-‘Weapon Wall’: Player commands any 2+ character(s) to place their weapons out in front of themselves in order to be ready to 'Retaliate'* should an enemy come to attack at close range. This is different from ‘Weapon Prepared’ because it automatically makes all people in the Weapon Wall ‘Retaliate’ if an enemy comes to use a normal melee attack against anyone who is part of the ‘Weapon Wall’. The player is given some short warning by the game immediately before the enemy carries out the melee attack. The player then may press the ‘Parry’ button on the system (if he/she reacts fast enough), or choose to ‘Retaliate’. Unless the player reacts fast enough to make the people in the ‘Weapon Wall’ ‘Retaliate’ before or during the opponent’s melee attack, the members of the ‘Weapon Wall’ will ‘Retaliate’ after the enemy has melee finished their melee.
‘Shield Charge’: 1+ characters charge towards the enemy party with their shields out in front of them for protection. One charger (attacker) can only charge at one enemy. The attacker will buffet or plough his/her victim with his/her shield and although this does not do as much damage as a real weapon, the attacker will always be prepared to block any ‘Retaliation’ attacks with his/her shield.
‘Weapon Charge’: 1+ characters charge at opposing party with weapon ready and out in front of them. Attacker will do more damage to the enemy than with a ‘Shield Charge’ and can ‘Parry’ a ‘Retaliation’ but is more exposed to one than with a ‘Shield Charge’.
‘Prepared Charge’: 1+ characters charge at opponents with shields and weapons out in front of themselves for the effects of both, but it takes 1 turn for (a) character(s) to prepare to carry it out. However, when the party is preparing for the charge, neither of them can ‘parry’ or ‘retaliate’, but have their shields out in front of them for protection (same effect as ‘Shield Wall’). Once the turn when the charge can be carried out arrives, the player will be asked to confirm his/her decision. If the player changes his/her mind when asked this, the game will cancel the charge and let the player go back to normal battle options for that turn.
‘Equipment Borrowing’- The player should be able to command a party member to ‘Borrow’ a piece of equipment like a sword or shield (not a single-use healing item) from an ally and use it once that turn and give it back to the ally from whom it was borrowed.
FOOD- I VERY STRONGLY recommend and politely ask that, in Golden Sun 4 there should be a ‘Food Option’. Different foods will offer different kinds of benefits (temporarily-the benefits are temporary) (e.g. meats will temporarily increase a character’s physical attack and defence. Vegetables and such will temporarily in- crease agility and luck). Seriously, Camelot, the sky’s the limit here; there are plenty of things to think of. Food is optional for the player and can be turned ‘Off’ and ‘On’ by the player. I VERY STRONGLY aask that a ‘Food Option’ be in Golden Sun 4.
-There MUST be an option that makes ALL close-quarters attacks (shield bashes, normal attacks done with weapons and so on) controlled by touch-screen. This should apply to both the normal, turn-based setout of battle, and the faster-paced real-time set out of ‘Melee Duels’ and ‘Brawls’. It will work like this: The player commands a character to use their normal weapon attack on an enemy. Once that character has approached the enemy, the player must move the stylus across the Touch-screen in the direction in which they want their character to swing their weapon at the enemy (e.g. if the player slides the stylus to the left of the Touch-screen, the character will swing their weapon to the left .This would be effective for getting an attack AROUND an enemy’s shield and weapon to a part of the enemy’s body that is NOT protected by a shield or weapon). There should be no limitations to this- absolutely ALL parts of the Touch-screen MUST be responsive to the movements of the stylus across it. It shouldn’t be that the player has to trace a drawing on the Touch-screen, it should be that the player CREATES a drawing on the Touch-screen. The character being controlled must respond to the player’s ‘drawing’ WHILE THE PLAYER IS ‘drawing’ ON THE TOUCH-SCREEN. Camelot, You could also include tracings if you wished and the player could record his own ‘drawings’ so that he can trace them (if he chooses) in later battles (they will be added to a list from which the player may choose a ‘drawing’ to trace). The character should not respond AFTER the player has finished ‘drawing’, but WHILE the player is ‘drawing’ this will give a fluent, immersive feeling to battles (please do it that way, please). The character will retreat back to their party if the player has not ‘drawn’ anything on the Touch-screen for a couple of moments. The Touch-screen being completely responsive on ALL areas allows for TOTAL fluency and for the character to basically invent weapon-based attacks of their own. Touch-screen based melee attacks MUST be included in ALL scenarios in which weapons can be used. NO excuses. Camelot, you may like to make it so that the player can make their character swing their weapon even when they are not close to the enemy-it would just add a fluent, free, unrestricted feel to the battle. Remember, there should be an option that allows the player to turn this aspect of battle on or off. But you guys at Camelot, MUST include this in Golden Sun 4.
‘Advancing’: 1+ character(s) take 1 step forward to intimidate the enemy (reduce their morale). The more allies the ‘Advancer’ has and the fewer allies the victim has, and the more ‘Advancers’ there are, the greater the effect on the victims’ morale will be. A character advances towards an individual enemy to reduce that enemy’s morale, but this will often mean that the advancer will be the preferred target for enemies next turn. The whole party may advance so none of them will be a preferred target for the enemy. More than one character may advance on the same individual enemy to reduce that enemy’s morale even further than with just one Advancer. The ‘Victim’ of an ‘Advance’ may take a step back for the turn after advanced upon, or hold his or her ground. If opposing characters/parties come close enough to each other, a ‘Melee Duel’ or ‘Brawl’ is more likely to begin than before because enemies will more likely try to perform a melee attack, in which case, the ‘Victim’, being a member of the player’s party may be commanded by the player to ‘Retaliate’. Also, the enemy (bots controlled by the game) will be more likely to ‘Retaliate’ if approached with a melee attack while the two parties are close to each other.
‘Chanting’- 1+ party member(s) chant at one enemy each to intimidate them. This will not always work (especially not on bosses), but will always increase the ‘Morale’ of each party member (especially the ones adjacent to the ‘Chanter’).
-ANY enemies should be able to perform ANY ‘Battle Formations/Actions’ (including ‘Retaliation’ and ’Charges’)
- ‘Retaliation’, ‘Melee Duels’, and ‘Brawls’ are all done in real time with the 3DS’s button-controls -Any of the above battle actions may (theoretically) lead to a ‘Melee Duel’ or a ‘Brawl’. Camelot, I want you to make this true.
-‘Advancing’ may be done at any time, whether during a ‘Melee Duel’, ‘Brawl’ or during a normal battle situation, but if done by a single character, it may expose that character to enemy attacks a bit more. This applies to ‘Melee Duels’, ‘Brawls’ and a normal, turn-based situation.
-You may like to include ‘Skill Levels’ for each individual character when it comes to ‘Battle Formations’ and ‘Battle Actions’. This means that a character will become better with a ‘Battle Formation’ or ‘Battle Action’ as he/she uses it more. For example, the higher a character’s skill level with ‘Advancing’, the more the enemy’s morale will be reduced by when ‘Advanced’ upon by that character, or, the more experience a character has with ‘Parrying’, the higher the resisting strength of the ‘Parry’ will be, making it harder for the attacker to push the defending character’s weapon back and then strike that defending character.
*"Retaliation' runs on ‘Real-Time’ and works like this: If anyone on either side of the battle comes close to his/her target to perform a melee attack, the defender has a few moments to strike back (with normal melee) before, during or immediately after being attacked (while the attacker is close enough). After being subject to 'Retaliation', the original attacker may 'Strike Back' against the defender who 'Retaliated'. This may lead to a REAL-TIME, ongoing melee fight (I will call it a ‘Melee Duel’) involving skillful parries, shield-blocks and any such actions one may imagine. The ‘Melee Duel’ goes on until one contender chooses to retreat back to his/her allies or if one contender's HP is depleted. The ‘Original Victim’ (defender at the beginning of the ‘melee duel’) may pursue his/her attacker back to the attacker's party to finish the attacker off, in which case, the attacker's allies may help the (original) attacker fight off the approaching enemy (the original 'Victim' or 'original Defender') until the 'Original Defender/Victim’ retreats, or is defeated (or even flees from battle due to loss of 'Morale'*.)
Eventually, this could lead to an all-out, Real-Time brawl with each party member fighting one enemy and helping his/her allies after defeating an opponent. The player can use a touch-screen icon to flit between the control of different characters during the brawl while the characters not controlled by the player are bots and controlled randomly by the game within the effects/limits of their (and their opponent’s) armour and weapons. Also, if there are archers on either side of the brawl, they can back up their allies by shooting the enemies from a distance, or join in at melee (not a good idea without a melee weapon).The player commands any ranged party members not actually in the ‘Brawl’ to shoot at the enemies (if armed with a ranged weapon), join in the melee, or use attacking psynergy on enemies from a distance or use healing psynergy on allies from a distance. The psynergy they use when not being controlled by the player is determined by the game. The player can command the ranged party member who to attack/heal (using an icon that leads to a menu of some sort), even if the player is not playing as that ranged party-member. If two or more of the player’s party members have teamed up on an enemy, the player can command all of them, but, given the 3DS’s limits, the player could only make the characters do the same thing at the same time (e.g. A Button would make both party members ‘attack’ at the same time) but the same thing could be done even if no enemy were being teamed-up on (you could control all party members at the same time but they would all be doing the same things at the same time unless you could think of a way to give them separate instructions at the same time, Camelot?). Also, anyone fighting at close-range may use healing moves on themselves and allies whether being controlled by the player, or controlled randomly by the game.
There should be particular controls for 'Melee Duels and ‘Brawls’ that are different to a normal battle situation: E.g. 'Retaliation' is initiated by the pressing of an icon on the touch-screen, (but will not be viable once the attacker retreats too far away), R Button for 'Shield-Block', A Button for 'Attack', L Button for 'Dodge' and Circle Pad for general movement (I expect GS4 will be on the 3ds)). Whenever the player is in a 'Melee Duel or ‘Brawl’', controlling one of his/her party members, he/she can call for support from allies by pressing a touch-screen icon.
*'Morale': Morale is a new stat I must suggest. Every character has it, and it can either be reduced or increased. It can be increased by the revival of downed allies, healing, and the fall or serious injury of enemies. It is reduced by being advanced upon, the fall or serious injury of allies, the arrival of new enemies and the healing of enemies. Morale should be reduced by 'Morale poison' and should be an optional stat which the player may switch on and off.
Camelot, I BEG you to put the ‘Morale’, ‘Retaliation’ ‘Battle Formations’, ‘Melee Duels’ and ‘Brawls’ in Golden Sun 4. Do NOT disappoint.
IMPORTANT, MUST READ : ALL things that can be done in battle, from ‘Attacking' to ‘Charges’, to ‘Walls’, to Djinn to Summons , even to items MUST, I insist, MUST be controlled by touch-screen based mini-games, puzzles and drawings which are randomly chosen by the game.. Each battle option (psynergy, djinn, summons, attacking, items etc.) outside of ‘Melee Duels’ and ‘Brawls’ should have several different touch-screen based puzzles and minigames to control it. The faster and more accurately the player completes a touch-screen minigame, drawing or puzzle, the greater the outcome will be. This may mean that moves can be enhanced beyond their normal strength if the player does puzzle with great precision and speed. Psynergies and items used outside of battle also have this feature. The player may switch this feature off (using the ‘Options Menu”) to revert back to the classic psynergy and item controls for dungeons and Overworld (World Map), and the classic controls for battles:
INTERACTIVE ITEM AND PSYNERGY CONTROLS (OVERWORLD/DUNGEON)
ON/OFF
INTERACTIVE BATTLE CONTROLS (excludes ‘Brawls and ‘Melee Duels’)
ON/OFF
Also, poisons, antidotes, and weapons made by the player are made by the completion of touch-screen based puzzles randomly chosen by the game unless the player turns that particular feature off (in which case, the player will just have to press buttons or something to make/design/prototype a weapon he/she makes/invents) . Any weapons or armour the player invents are prototyped and completed on the touch-screen if the ‘Overworld Interactive’ option is chosen.
REGARDING CAVALRY: There MUST be cavalry in Golden Sun 4. Cavalry can anything from big dogs to horses to camels to elephants to mythical beasts (and real-life animals that are not possible to tame or muster but can be with the use of psynergy, (E.G. hippos and rhinos). Horses will be easiest to get by purchasing or temporarily hiring them from town stables and a few towns will do the same with elephants. Other ‘Cavalry’ must be captured by the player in the wild (usually, there might be the odd ‘Mythical Beast’ tamed in a town stable. Each type of ‘Cavalry’ must have its own specialty and perhaps Special Ability; E.G. (just some suggestions)
LARGE DOGS:
ATTACK AND DEFENCE-Have great attack (but weak defence without armour).
SPECIAL ABILITY- Can ‘Roar’ (1+ Characters) to strike fear into all enemies, reducing their ‘Morale’ sometimes making them flee. Player can focus a ‘Roar’ onto an individual enemy and the effect will be increased if more than one dog roars at the same enemy. Can also ‘Maul’ enemies, which reduces the ‘Morale’ of other enemies. Also, Camelot, Think of a better general term than ‘Large Dogs’.
HORSES:
ATTACK AND DEFENCE-Good defence, average attack.
SPECIAL ABILITY-Have a ‘Trampling’ Special Ability. ‘Trampling’ is performed by 1+ character(s) the enemy will usually defeat small enemies outright, if not, leave them stunned.
ELEPHANTS
ATTACK AND DEFENCE- Very high attack, and even higher defence.
SPECIAL ABILITY- Can ‘Roar’ and ‘Stampede’. ‘Stampede’ is performed by 1+ character(s) effective against almost everything and will defeat out all non-boss enemies outright.
MYTH CAVALRY
Camelot, you decide on what certain myth-cavalries are good at and what their weaknesses are and what they are called. Just take them from the Mythologies of ancient cultures in reality.
-All cavalry can wear armour (E.G. horses wear horse armour, elephants wear ‘elephant armour’ etc. There are the same pieces of armour for cavalry as there are for humans: helmets for head protection, body armour for torso protection etc.)
-ALL ‘Battle Formations’ and ‘Battle Actions’ can be performed by a character even when he/she is riding a ‘Cavalry’.
-‘Cavalry’ should be considered separate from the rider. This means that an enemy must choose between attacking the animal, or attacking the rider.
- After a ‘Stampede’ (from a elephant) or ‘Trample’ (from a horse), it will take 1 turn for the horse or elephant (and its rider) to return back to the battle. While that character is gone, the player can choose to either replace him/her or continue to fight with one less character until the rider returns. If the rider returns, but the player has replaced him/her with another character, the player then chooses to either keep the new character in the frontline and send the returned rider to where the new character came from, or send the new character back to where he/she came from.
- A cavalry animal can be healed, but cannot be revived once it has been four turns since he/she fell. A Myth-Cavalry can either always be revived, or die after 8 turns (you decide on the Myth-cavalry one, Camelot!).
-Healing moves can heal both a cavalry and his/her rider or just one of the two, but healing both would mean dividing the power of the healing move equally between them.
-As a character uses a certain cavalry more, that character will become better at mustering and riding that type of cavalry and that individual cavalry (the player may name the cavalry to tell them apart). This makes the rider better at performing all ‘Battle Formations’ and ‘Battle Actions’ with that type of cavalry (horse, elephant etc.).
WEAPONS AND AROMOUR: ALL characters MUST be able to equip ANY weapon or piece of armour, it should just be that some characters are better with some weapons and armour than other characters are.
For example (weapons): Rief should be able to equip an axe (he couldn’t in Dark Dawn) but it greatly reduces his agility when he uses it (because he is not too physically strong) and Tyrell is better with it than Rief is (at first). If the player keeps training Rief to use it, Rief will become better at using it; he will do more damage with it and gradually regain his Agility with the axe and his overall physical strength will improve, increasing his overall attack with all weapons. Eventually, Rief could become as good as (if not better than) Tyrell at using axes. If he begins to use an artifact weapon he is not used to, he will have train up to rebalance his agility when using it.
Another example (for armour): Karis should be able to equip body armour, but it greatly reduces her Agility since it is so heavy for her. Matthew more-or-less maintains agility when wearing body armour because he is used to it and is physically stronger. If Karis keeps wearing it, she will gradually regain her Agility since she becomes physically stronger and may eventually become better than Matthew at being Agile when wearing it. This will also mean that Karis does the same with most body armours (non-artifact ones). If she begins to wear an artifact armour she is not used to, she will have to train up with it to rebalance her agility when wearing it.
-If a character is trained to use a weapon or armour that he/she is not naturally skilled with, the character will gain an overall statistic-benefit for the status that the weapon/armour focuses on (e.g. if Rief is trained to use an axe, his overall attack status will increase (even when he does not have an axe equipped). If Karis trains to wear a piece of armour she often doesn’t wear, for instance, bronze armour, her overall defence statistic will increase, even while not wearing the bronze armour. However, if a character gets used to using a piece of armour or a weapon he/she is not naturally suited to and then stops using that weapon or armour, that character will gradually lose the benefits that were granted by training with that weapon or armour (e.g. Rief gets used to using an axe, regains his agility with it and his overall physical attack improves, but then he stops using it for a while so his agility with it decreases and the overall physical attack benefit he gained (from training with the axe) will gradually decrease. If this happens, the player may train Rief to use the axe well again- retrain him to improve his attack and agility with it etc.).
-Weapons should become dulled from parrying and armour should become damaged when hit. Eventually, the weapon or piece of armour may be destroyed if it runs out of HP. As a weapon is dulled it will do less damage. As a piece of armour is damaged it will provide a little less defence. A weapon can be re-sharpened if dulled, and a piece of armour may be repaired if damaged, totally restoring the benefits they offer to the wearer. These can be done at a weapon or armour store. If a weapon or piece of armour is destroyed, it may be reforged at a store, but it will do a little less damage (in the case of a weapon) or provide a little less defence (in the case of a piece of armour) once reforged. However, a specialist blacksmith may reforge an item to its original state and reforge destroyed artifact weapons and armour. You MUST put these in the game.
DJINNI: In Golden Sun 4, Djinni MUST have more various effects than before. In this case, the word ‘No’ is totally foreign to me and no longer a part of my vocabulary.
The new effects could be;
-Stealing HP from all enemies and giving it to 1 ally.
- Making an enemy or ally go rogue (can attack or heal anyone) for 2 turns but double the effect of anything he/she does during those 2 turns.
-A djinni that does great damage to both parties but focuses on one of them randomly chosen by the game.
-reduces the user to 0 HP but has a 100% chance of reviving all downed allies in the front lineline.
-Prevents all enemies from attacking the person with the least HP in the party.
-Deflects enemy attacks with a 50% chance of hitting the enemy who attacked the player’s party
-Makes the enemy party receive 50% of the effects of the attacks they throw at the player’s party, while the player’s party takes the other 50%.
- Makes a party member (chosen by the player) the life-source of the rest of that line of the party, so, if downed, the rest of that line of the party will also go down, but all their abilities’ effects will be enhanced by 50%, and the life-source character’s abilities will be enhanced by 100%.
-Increases a party member’s defence each time that party member is attacked. Lasts for one turn. [The same effect could be used for attack, agility, luck, and elemental resistances and powers.]
-Doubles a character’s RATE of mastery (the SPEED at which the character is mastering that weapon/armour) with an un-mastered weapon or armour (lasts for 2 turns).
-Doubles a character’s CURRENT LEVEL of mastery with an un-mastered weapon or armour (lasts for 2 turns).
- Boosts either attack, agility or resistance ( one of them is randomly chosen by the game)
-Targets all enemies and makes them either flee, defend, or use a healing move (rather than attack the player’s party)
-One ally goes berserk and attacks all enemies with extreme force, but is then reduced to either 0 or 1 HP.
-Immunizes the party against ailments for four turns (for four turns, the frontline party members cannot be stunned, deluded, poisoned, put to sleep etc.). Also, two turns after being unleashed, this djinni will rid the party of any ailments received before its use.
-Use on any party member in the front line. If a different party member is downed within the next two turns, the target of this djinni will severely attack the enemy who downed the other party member.
- Target on any party member in the front line. If that party member goes down within the next 2 turns, he/she will down the enemy responsible, and if a boss is responsible, the downed (now revived) character will not down the boss, but will attack it with great force (once revived by a fellow party member).
Seriously, Camelot, there are HEAPS of djinn effects you haven’t used yet. The sky’s the limit. Go crazy.
MULTIPLAYER: Multiplayer in Golden Sun 4 should be vast. Here’s how to make it so:
Trading between two players (either over the internet, or locally). After a ‘Trade’, the giver of the item, djinni etc. will still have a copy of the thing he/she gave to the other player.
-Trading items with another player for anything or nothing.
-Trading djinn for other djinn, for anything or nothing.
-Trading summons for anything or nothing. (Camelot, you may like to exclude this one, as it can mean a player can have a very powerful summon early in the game. But perhaps you could make it so that a player can only receive summons that he/she could already have, but simply missed them).
-Trading psynergy for anything or nothing. (Camelot, You may like to restrict this by making a character unable to learn an entire psynergy series stemming from one psynergy he/she received from ‘Psynergy Trade’ until the character is on the right level to learn the other psynergies in that psynergy series).
-Trading characters for anything or nothing. (Camelot, you may like to restrict characters received from ‘Character Trade’ at the battle arena and multiplayer, so they cannot be used in the quest before the player gets them in the Quest Mode).
- Trading music for anything or nothing. The music received from this can only be played at the ‘Music Box’ at the arena.
-Also, please make all multiplayer components both local and online. I will be disappointed especially if there is no online multiplayer.
You may like to build on these suggestions, Camelot.
Multiplayer Fighting
-MULTIPLAYER COLOSSO: Multiplayer contest, ‘Colosso’ style. There should also be a ‘Single Player’ version of this. Plus, If you include up to 4 (or even 6!) players, there could be a “Team Mode” for this in which the numbers of players can be divided. This means there will be alliances e.g. 3 against 3, 2 against 4 (any combinations, really). There MUST also be a ‘Single Player version of exactly the same thing, teams, alliances and all. Obviously, the ones who aren’t the player are controlled by the game.
MULTIPLAYER PUZZLE RACE: Multiplayer race to the finish line (on foot) with puzzles to complete but without the battle at the end. There should obviously be several different courses for this and a Single Player Mode. Plus, If you include up to 4 (or even 6!) players, there could be a “Team Mode” for this in which the numbers of players can be divided. This means there will be alliances e.g. 3 against 3, 2 against 4 (any combinations, really). There MUST also be a ‘Single Player version of exactly the same thing with teams alliances. Obviously, the ones who aren’t the player are controlled by the game.
MULTIPLAYER ARENA: 2+ players fight against each other in the arena (with their own parties from the Quest Mode). There can be alliances (e.g.2 players against 2 players) and up to 6 players (okay, six might be pushing it!) But at least 2 players. Some players should be able to play as the random monsters. There should also be cooperative player in which 2+ players working together to defeat arena monsters, but the arena monsters are stronger or more numerous than they would be if just one player were to fight them.
-As with everything I have and will mention, Camelot, the sky is the limit. Go crazy (but within reason).
-Also, I presume there will be a part of the game’s story in which the player competes in Colosso. Colosso should involve death. If the player defeats an opponent in Colosso, the player should be able to choose whether his/her opponent lives or dies. But the crowd who are watching should play a major role. If the player has defeated an opponent, the crowd will say whether that opponent should live or die. If the player goes against the crowd’s decision, the player will most likely be disqualified from the Colosso tournament. Also, if the player his/her opponent live, then that opponent may thank the player by giving him/her a special, artifact item later in the game, regardless of whether the crowd had said that opponent should live or die. BOTH should apply to Colosso in both the Quest Mode and the Single Player/Multiplayer Arena Mode. Also, the player may be killed by his/her opponent in Colosso in both the Single player/Multiplayer Arena Mode, and Quest Mode, but this may not be necessary because the player could just try again. I must add that death in Colosso is not entirely necessary, you may exclude it if you wish.
-There should also be ‘Multiplayer Hot Seat’. In Multiplayer Hot seat, two (or More if you include ‘alliances’) players will fight each other (in turned-based style). When one player has given orders to his party, he will hand the 3DS to his opponent, then the opponent will give orders to his party. However, unless you guys find a way to circumvent this problem, this turn-based setting will mean you cannot use any of the ‘Real Time’ battle components like ‘Retaliation’ and ‘Melee Duels’ and ‘Brawls’.
PRESENTATION
Obviously, Camelot, all of your fans expect fantastic graphics (and 3D if on 3DS) for Golden Sun 4. NO Question. You know what to do.
There are some other things you could do to make GS 4 look awesome.
- Display armour that characters are wearing. Both in battle and out of battle. On areas of a character’s body without armour, just place his/her Character Art. The armour display should be optional for the player.
- Also display armour that cavalry wear.
OTHER
-Make Golden Sun 4’s difficulty A UNIVERSE greater than Dark Dawn’s. Dark Dawn’s was almost criminally low, in terms of battles and puzzles. Do not let that happen again.
-Do not put childish talk in GS4 like you did in Dark Dawn. Words like ‘Yeah’, ‘guy’, ‘dad’, ‘mom’, ‘kid’ Must not be included. And NO teenage American accents. Teenage American accents could bring down the WHOLE voice-acting scheme of the game!
-Give the player the ability to skip cutscenes and always make perfectly obvious what to do next.
-Have no points-of-no-return. They did not affect me in Dark Dawn, but plenty of people have been annoyed by them. If you guys think you’ll need to put one in, don’t. Just cleverly surpass the need to do so. e.g. perhaps in Dark Dawn you could have made it so that the player was allowed to go back to the Goma Plateau but the Tuaparang had used dark psynergy that makes you unable to see and hear the people there but does not physically block you from anywhere. Also, the icebergs preventing the player from returning to Belinsk during the Grave Eclipse were not necessary. The player should have just been able to go back to Border town and Saha town and Belinsk and Kolima Village to find everyone in safehouses with torches to keep the monsters away.
-Fill the plot hole of how Garet isn’t weakened and Ivan and Mia don’t fuse at Mercury lighthouse in Golden Sun 1, how Isaac neither recovers PP, nor fuses with Garet (and Ivan isn’t weakened) at Venus lighthouse, how Sheba, Ivan, Mia and Piers don’t fuse at Jupiter lighthouse and how Felix and Isaac don’t lose PP there and how characters don’t fuse and aren’t weakened at Mars Lighthouse after the battle with the Doom Dragon. Also, remember in Golden sun 1 when you go to Kolima or Kolima forest and Tret tries to turn everyone in your party into trees but those psynergy domes protect you? Well, a few moments afterwards, Ivan theorizes that the domes were psynergy and psynergy protects an adept when he or she is in danger. Well, why doesn’t psynergy automatically activate to protect an adept during a dangerous battle? Please explain this in Golden Sun 4.
-I would LOVE to see the 3DS’s gyro controls utilized. You could do this to change camera angles at ALL degrees at any time; during battle, during cutscenes, any time, (also to move your character in battle during ‘Melee Duels and ‘Brawls’) and on the world map.
-Some of the music in dark dawn was simply brought down by bad instrument choices:
‘Boss Battle theme 1’: energetic and excellent, but has an annoying, high-pitched, wonky instrument in the background that brings the theme down a bit. I’m positive that was not a glitch. I hate that sound. It is unnecessary and needless and horrible. It is abominable. Never use it ever again. It is also in boss battle theme 2, the Dark Dawn remix of Saturos’ theme, the ‘Under The Shadow Of The Eclipse’ theme and one of the cave themes (used on the world map when you go under the darkness of the Grave Eclipse).
Also, the bells in The Dark Dawn remix of Saturos’ theme are kind of annoying and considerably mediocre. You could have used a vocal sound instead.
I also did not like Battle theme 2. It plays during battles before Rief joins the party and has a Hammond organ in it. That is a CRIME.
I also did not like the theme that plays when you battle Eclipse monsters. Just listen to it. It has a Haloween-style electric organ in it and other synthesized, Haloween-style sounds. That makes it VERY mediocre. Do not use such instruments in Golden sun 4!
-For Golden Sun 4’s music, I simply but strongly ask that Motoi Sakuraba use a couple orchestral or operatic-style layers in some of the themes as well as a few themes Mainly made up of orchestral instruments and voice. But overall, the music should follow the model of the music used in Golden Suns 1 and 2. Golden Suns 1 and 2 had the music that crystallized in my (and my brother’s) childhood. Make golden Sun 4’s music do that as well.
Mr. Sakuraba,
You know how to make phenomenal music. Mars Lighthouse’s theme, The original Saturos’ Theme (better than the Dark Dawn version), Tundaria Tower theme, and the Aqua Rock Theme, Vale’s theme, Karagol Sea theme, and the Golden Sun: The Lost Age Credits’ Theme and a few others that I can’t be bothered trying to remember are all perfect examples of your musical prowess!
One other thing I must say to you, Camelot, is that my brother and I noticed all the Mario stuff you guys put in Dark Dawn: the Mario-style Deathwisps in the Tanglewood forest, the Mario style bomb in the Border-Town Mine (the place where you get the summon Ulysses), and that fairy woman displayed in the ‘FLORA’ summon sequence (she looks a lot like princess Peach) and (worst of all) the Clouds of Passaj. I noticed the Mario-style electric balls that zap you out of the sky if you fly into them, I noticed the staircase made of zol resting on clouds at the end of the ‘Clouds of Passaj’. In fact, I am 98-99% sure that the entire ‘Clouds of Passaj’ thing was taken off Mario altogether. There is a cloud ‘World’ in New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS. Also, the acknowledgement of the ‘Super Mario Club’ in Dark Dawn’s credits is a perfect explanation of the Mario stuff in Dark Dawn. Obviously, you Camelot guys got financial support from the Super Mario Club in order to make Dark Dawn. Now, I don’t mean to say that I like Mario, so you “shouldn’t take stuff from it”, but rather that the Golden Sun series is several universes better than Mario (well, at least the first two Golden Sun’s are). This means that you should never, EVER have put Mario stuff in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Doing that is abominable. Shameful. Never do it again. It is EVIL. And if doing that was part of the deal with the Super Mario Club, away with them! Get financial support from someone else!
So, Camelot,
I wish for you to include these ideas in the next Golden Sun and include your own awesome ideas. Also, the ’Battle Formations/Actions’ may be turned off in the ‘Options Menu’. If you guys detect ANY flaws in the game whatsoever, (especially plot holes and badly explained plots) fix them immediately. In Dark Dawn, the cutscenes were too long because what could have been explained in 15 speech bubbles was explained in 40 AND THEN the characters each had to express their own opinions on a small matter (like at the Alchemy Dynamo when you see Blados and Chalis). You took the long way of explaining the plot, and yet didn’t explain it properly AT ALL. You didn’t explain CRYSTAL CLEAR why Volechek wanted Luna Tower activated and how the Tuaparang had fooled him and Sveta. Seriously, I had to piece together almost the WHOLE middle part of Dark Dawn’s story with scraps of information that characters gave with HUGE gaps in between. This must not happen in Golden Sun 4. Make the explanation of ALL of the story IDIOT-PROOF and allow the player to watch cutscenes again at any time. Make the story phenomenal, give each character great charisma and give times for the player to adapt to each of them individually in the gameplay and cutscenes, and make the important cutscenes full of the appropriate atmosphere (e.g. give an atmosphere of exhilaration when you are on the verge of doing something like capturing an important villain or antagonist, or an atmosphere of grandness when in a place of great wonder and awe, an atmosphere of darkness when in a dark or deserted or despairing place. This would obviously be done through dialogue, silence, sound, and music.
-Fill ALL boss fights with an awesome feeling of exhilaration. If the player wins , it should feel like the best comeback or struggle or outwitting of the enemy EVER. If the player loses, he/she should still feel that victory is achievable-that there is something he/she has not tried yet, and that he/she put up a good fight, that their defeat was rather humorous and energized, an awesome ‘way to go out’ and that he/she is still very confident and optimistic and thinking strategically. In Dark Dawn, however, the player could just spam attacks or choose them randomly and win either way. That must not be the case EVER AGAIN in the Golden Sun series.
Some other things:
In golden sun 4, the leader of the party must not be a wimpy, blonde-haired 16 or 17 year old boy whose voice hasn’t broken yet. Give the leader of the party more guts in Golden Sun 4. Make him say memorable, evil, villain-like, wise and deceptive things to the villain, make him physically strong instead of him just having a burly guy as his secretary who is only good at destroying things and taking orders.
COPIED CHARACTERS: The characters so far in the series have been quite repetitive. The leader has always been an earth adept with medium physical strength, the strongest ones have always been fire adepts, the weakest ones have always been wind and water adepts who heal the party. In Golden Sun 4, make new mixtures of characters’ psynergies and physical strength. The fire adept could be physically average or weak, but could heal the party, while the water or wind adept could be the leader and be physically strong with green or brown hair and clothes (not blue), for example. Just mix up the character’s clothing and hair styles and main battle skills (e.g. strength, healing).
-There must be plenty of new and inventive summons with new and strange effects and dazzling audiovisual sequences. Full stop.
-You could include blood and screaming in battles and these could be alterable options (BLOOD:on/off SCREAMING:on/off)
-There should be Morale-enhancing abilities (certain djinn, summons, items and psynergy could be used to increase morale of characters or the whole party).
-In Dark Dawn, many of the puzzles were just a matter of casting one psynergy (perhaps repeatedly) or moving a few objects around and the puzzle was complete. Make Golden Sun 4’s puzzles far more complex, make them as gloriously ingenious as the puzzles of Golden Sun 1 and 2 with their own original, brain-mocking twists.
-Also, there is another plot-hole like error in the game: the construction of the ‘Endless Wall’ in accordance with the changing of geography caused by the Golden Sun. If the Ancient Sanans built the wall in ancient times, during the last Golden Age, then that means that the wall would have been destroyed when the mountains shifted after the ancients sealed the power of alchemy away. Also, the ruins of the wall were not present in Golden Sun 1 or 2. You guys must fix this error by saying, for example, that the ancient Sanans built the Endless Wall during the last Golden Age and then it was destroyed by the shifting of the mountains on which it stands when the ancients sealed the power of the Golden Sun away.
When the Golden Sun returned (thanks to Felix and Isaac and their group), the Sanan nation was reformed and the Endless Wall was reconstructed in such a way as to avoid crumbling due to any further shifting of the mountains from that point on (perhaps constructed this way through the use of psynergy or something).
The same sort of thing goes for the new towns in Dark Dawn. They were not there in Golden Sun 1 and 2, but their inhabitants seem to say that their cities were around in ancient times. To fix the plot-hole of those cities not existing in golden Sun 1 and 2, you could say that those cities were around during the last Golden Age, then, when the ancients sealed away the power of alchemy, raw psynergy/alchemy became unavailable for the maintenance of the cities. The cities’ buildings to crumble due to lack of maintenance, and the lands’ natural resources became scarcer since Alchemy’s influence on the natural world was gone. This new scarceness of natural resources scattered the populations of cities from the Golden Age, giving way to smaller, more scattered towns such as Vault, Bilibin, Mikasala, Garoh etc. and all of the towns and villages from Golden Sun 1 and 2. But then, when Alchemy was returned, the people found evidence and eventually proof of pre-existing cities which were around during the Last Golden Age. The people discovered ancient records of events and the ancients’ ways of life, telling them all they now know about the Exathi, the Jenei and the Fori and all other ancient peoples (if any). Also, how often does the Mourning Moon appear? Every ten years after the Golden Sun? I’m a bit confused. I think Isaac’s diary says every ten years, but the In-Game Encyclopedia entry for the Mourning Moon says ‘This immense Psynergy Vortex once caused unimaginable destruction in Angara…’ Do you mean it appeared ONCE, as the Encyclopedia entry says, or every ten years after the Golden Sun, as Isaac’s diary says? Please clarify in Golden Sun 4.
Seriously, Camelot, it was pretty amateur of you guys to not say in Dark Dawn what happened to some of the towns from Golden Sun 1 and 2 and even more amateur of you to not explain how come all of these new towns (seen in Dark dawn) suddenly came into being, and worst of all, you guys had not mentioned anything of the Exathi and the Jenei and the Fori in the first two Golden Suns, you just introduced them quite suddenly in Dark Dawn as if you had just sloppily thought of them while making Dark Dawn. You MUST fix this stuff to the best of your ability by saying the stuff I have suggested in the above paragraph (unless you can think of something better). Also, what happened to Blados and Chalis at the end of Dark Dawn? Are they dead or still alive? Personally, I think it would be very poor of you to say that they are still alive.
-Dark Dawn’s story was like this: You spend 1 third of the game trying to get to Belinsk, then once you do get to Belinsk you spend another third of the game looking for Kraden and the Mountain Roc and breaking into Luna Tower and activating it. Then, once you have activated Luna Tower, you spend the last third of the game trying to end the Grave Eclipse. So, the first bit of the game is spent trying to just GET to Belinsk, and much of the rest of the game is spent doing something unrelated to the original objective of getting the Mountain Roc feather. Also, the game ultimately told us nothing about the psynergy vortexes. Doing all these things is called ‘Stringing Out The Plot’. Don’t do this in Golden Sun 4. Do not make the player spend a large chunk of the game doing something that yields hardly any results and then gets the story sidetracked. Just don’t do that again.
One other suggestion is that the player must be surprised (and not to mention severely challenged) by all the bosses in Golden Sun 4- ‘optional’/’secret’ and non-optional bosses. One of these surprises could be that just when the player has won an epic but gruelingly difficult boss fight and is about to leave the room, another huge monster appears, providing a much stronger and more epic and energetic battle than the monsters the player has just fought. This would be best used for an ‘optional’ (‘secret’) boss fight because it would add to the player’s feeling of awe and excitement at making a huge discovery involving an epic summon and maybe some awesome, never-before-seen item. Also, hide secret bosses ingeniously, Camelot. Maybe you could make a sort of riddle or clue out of things that some random people say in different towns across the world or you could put a subliminal clue as to where an optional boss or other massive secret is in the game (maybe on the map that the game provides to the player to help him/her navigate).
Generic Villains- Camelot, Please do not make Golden Sun 4’s villains generic. What makes a villain generic is them saying things like ‘Hahahah… I hate to tell you, but you’re too late.’ and ‘This won’t be like last time, I’m stronger than ever now!’ and ‘I will have more power than ever!’ I am sure that you guys can make Golden Sun 4’s villains original, especially Alex- he could say wise and true things despite being a villain. Just work on that a bit. You could also have great story- revelations of conspiracies in a couple of cut scenes. Like some great deceitful plot device among a couple of villains or between someone the protagonists trust and one of the villains. This would be especially effective if the cutscenes did not involve the protagonists- the player would be left gaping at the screen because he would know something that the protagonists do not. Think about it this way- think of a fictional TV series that you like, for example. You are shocked when you find that a character whom you thought was normal turns out to be an insane, sadistic serial killer on the inside! And you’re thinking ‘Wow! I didn’t expect a plot twist like this!’ This kind of thing should be in Golden Sun 4. I’m not saying that there should be a serial killer, but just a plot twist that runs on the same lines.
-You may also like to add the option of replaying battles but that is entirely up to you, I don’t mind if it’s not in the game.
I kindly ask that you guys at Camelot MUST include the ideas I have suggested, but you may exclude the ideas which I said you may exclude, but I simply demand that the others WILL be in Golden Sun 4.
-‘WE are the fans. WE are the power!’
